D&D 5E Jumping

[werecorpse]

How does a 15 strength character jump a 16' gap?

or a 20' gap?

do they land prone?

does it matter if they have extra movement ? Or are slower? Or small?

what are the mechanics for long jumping or high jumping?

 

[Paraxis]

JUMPING Your Strength determines how far you can jump.

Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement.

This rule assumes that the height of your jump doesn’t matter, such as a jump across a stream or chasm. At your DM’s option, you must succeed on a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear a low obstacle (no taller than a quarter of the jump’s distance), such as a hedge or low wall. Otherwise, you hit it.

When you land in difficult terrain, you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to land on your feet. Otherwise, you land prone.

High Jump. When you make a high jump, you leap into the air a number of feet equal to 3 + your Strength modifier if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing high jump, you can jump only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement. In some circumstances, your DM might allow you to make a Strength (Athletics) check to jump higher than you normally can.

You can extend your arms half your height above yourself during the jump. Thus, you can reach above you a distance equal to the height of the jump plus 1. times your height.

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Athletics. Your Strength (Athletics) check covers difficult situations you encounter while climbing, jumping, or swimming. Examples include the following activities:

-You try to jump an unusually long distance or pull off a stunt midjump.

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The above are the specific rules for jumping, anything else is up to the DM.

The way I handle a strength 15 character making a long jump of of 16' or 20', is by making them make a Strength(athletics) check as it states. DC varies by situation but a 15 will get you a few extra feet at my table. I also allow the extension of arms like with a high jump on a long jump so the 16' gap would be withing reach just clinging to the side.

I take extra movement, height, size and stuff into adjudicating the above DC for extra distance covered.

Landing in difficult terrain as above is a DC 10 Dexterity(acrobatics) check to land not prone.

But if the character has the strength and the 10 feet of room for a jump a strength 15 halfling makes a 15' jump without a check, because that is what the rules say happens. Pretty much 10' wide pits in the hall don't matter much unless someone dumped strength to less than 10.

 

[SirAntoine]

Be sure to tie a rope around the jumper's waist, to be able to pull him back before he hits the ground.

 

[miniaturehoarder]

Or get pulled down with the jumper!

 

[Syntallah]

I allow a jumper to extend his base norm by 20% per 5pts of an Athletics check.

So, a PC with 20 Str and +6 proficiency who rolled a 20 on his die could jump 44ft. Quite a bit beyond the Olympic records, but hey, it's epic fantasy.

 

[iserith]

How does a 15 strength character jump a 16' gap?

or a 20' gap?

do they land prone?

does it matter if they have extra movement ? Or are slower? Or small?

what are the mechanics for long jumping or high jumping?

A DM may say that such a character fails to jump a 16-foot gap. Or the DM may say the result is uncertain and call for an ability check. He or she may also say the jump succeeds, but on its own and with reference to rules only, this doesn't seem a likely call.

A DM may be likely to rule landing prone as a result of failure on a check, such as by landing in difficult terrain or trying to extend a jump past the character's Strength score. I think a good failure condition that is exciting and memorable would be to have the character just barely miss the jump and catch the ledge with his or her hands (prone, mechanically). Now the character is dangling there, possibly having dropped weapons and shield - "What do you do?"

According to the rules, the only factor in jump distance is Strength score (or Strength modifier for high jumps). So extra movement or size doesn't make a difference except perhaps when the DM considers those as factors for determining a DC when the character takes an action with an uncertain outcome. Reduced movement may impact the overall distance a character can jump, depending on the circumstances. For example, a halfling with Strength 15 under the effects of a ray of frost may struggle to jump that gap after making an attack as he or she only has 15 feet of movement to spare and 10 feet of movement is required to make a running long jump. Still, the DM may only consider their jump uncertain (and apply a higher DC due to the circumstances) rather than say the character cannot make the jump outright.

The rules for jumping are on page 64 of the Basic Rules which are available online for free.

 

[Pibby]

I personally do not like the simulationist rules of jumping and never had. Despite that, they do make a good guideline.
Whenever a PC asks me how difficult it is to make a particular jump I express the DC based on how hard I want it to be, not how hard it actually is as expressed by the book. Doing so I also take note every time I do this so that the DC is the same when a similar situation comes up. For things like the Monk class features, I just give a flat bonus to jump checks (up to +5) when appropriate because Advantage would "stack" with the normal rules for such things.

 

[KarinsDad]

I allow a jumper to extend his base norm by 20% per 5pts of an Athletics check.

So, a PC with 20 Str and +6 proficiency who rolled a 20 on his die could jump 44ft. Quite a bit beyond the Olympic records, but hey, it's epic fantasy.

With armor and backpack and such, that's not just beyond the roughly 29 1/3 foot Olympic record, it grabs the Olympic record, beats it up, stumps on it and then takes a leak on it (I do not even know how you got to 44 there, a normal jump is strength 20 add your houserule of +20% of 31 athletics check would be 6, for 26 total).

 

[Wolfskin]

Recently I had to come up with a house rule on the fly for this: when you want to clear a distance longer than your ability score in a jump, you make an Athletics check at DC 10 and clear an extra foot for each number over the check's difficulty.

 

[Syntallah]

With armor and backpack and such, that's not just beyond the roughly 29 1/3 foot Olympic record, it grabs the Olympic record, beats it up, stumps on it and then takes a leak on it (I do not even know how you got to 44 there, a normal jump is strength 20 add your houserule of +20% of 31 athletics check would be 6, for 26 total).

Apologies, was away from my DM Screen and the ole memory ain't what it used to be. The modifier is 15% (not 20%), per 5pts of the Athletics check.

So, if you get a 31 on your check [20 roll + 5 Str mod + 6 prof bonus], divided by 5 is six increments of 15%; total of [.9 * your 20 Str score] for 18ft added to your baseline of 20ft. Grand total of 38ft. Still smashing records, but that's a 20th level PC rolling perfectly...

As for the gear mention, I use the variant encumbrance rules, and keep track of what the PCs are carrying. If the plate wearing, backpack carrying fighter wants to jump a chasm, I will alter the 5pt/15% modifier on a case by case basis. Throw in the Disadvantage from encumbrance, and things can get real tricky real quick.